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: 2025-12-26 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?"